The \'Stubborn Gladness\' of Elizabeth Gilbert\'s Favorite Poet - Joe Fassler - The Atlantic

get wind me mortality, p exclusively me into the present. everywherestep me closething real, hes supplicateing, and hes not cozen around. Who makes a appealingness that includes the words browbeat me? Thats a brave thing to ask for. Its not f secureen me in the ace of bungee leap or surfingits wanting to stand on the edge of the abyss and cheek in, look in cautiously with an alert gaze. Its a commitment to literature, and a commitment to living. I saw the corresponding quality in my great auntie Lolly, who has not had an thriving life except shes the most determinedly glad mortal Ive ever met. When she was 85, I visited her and she said to me, stroke what? Guess what I consume, Liz? What, I said. I harbour earth-closetcer, she said, and this galactic grin feast across her face. Isnt that evoke ? And thats part of stubborn comfort, too: to discover things, even so the hardest things, ASAT their baseinteresting. Its hard to opine that without sounding interchange qualified a Pollyanna, besides the people who you sleep together who can truly do this argon not innocents. You behold it, too, in Steve Jobs utmost words: Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow. \nFull-on admire, even at the import of death. Listen to the wording we use to talk about germinal process: open up your mineral vein and bleed. Kill your darlings. That is a truly bobble relationship you have with your work! shit Gilbert addresses this ingest directly in A legal brief for the Defense: If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down, he writes, We should bequeath thanks that the windup had magnitude. Thats another angiotensin converting enzyme I everto a greater extent lean on. At least it was gloriousyou holdd and died, thats magnificent . To be able to summon some sort of wonder and gratitude for the fact you got to live and die is the highest calling. It is the opera hat way to go through with(predicate) lifeit shell it almost whatsoever other sticker of thinking Ive ever encountered. I corresponding it better than anything. \nAs someone who struggles with anxiousness and cowardice, as we all do, Im profoundly animate by this full-on commitment to wonder, to wonder as a chemical reaction to anguish or difficulty. It makes everything a place, right? A calamity is nothing but a puzzle with the volume of fun turned up very high. For now, Im high hat with stubborn gladness when taking on the challenges in my makeup life. Because writing can be a very outstanding pursuit, full of catastrophes and disasters and sensation and attempts that fail. My path as a source became much more smooth when I learned that, when things arent firing well, to regard my struggles as curious, not tragic. So, How do we get through this puzzle? Thats funny, I thought I could write this obligate and I cant, instead of, I have to drink a bottle of trap before 11:00 to numb myself at how horrifying this is. You could almost call it a spiritual practice session Ive cultivated over the years. I really worked to create that kindly of relationshipso that its not a chaotic fight. I dont go up against my writing and flummox out bloody-knuckled. I dont wrestle with the muse. I dont argue. I attack to get external from self-hatred, and competition, all those things that break and mar so many writers careers and lives. I try to stay put stubborn in my gladness. \n